Next week the Lean Software and Systems conference in Boston will undoubtedly supply a plethora of buzz. Until then, here’s a series of blog posts from some prolific writers.
Four, yes that’s 4, new blog posts by David J Anderson on topics ranging from extending core Kanban practices to lack of roles to “certifying” trainers. Check them out. http://agilemanagement.net/index.php
Podcasts are a great forum for learning. One can replay the important bits as much as one wants to. This week’s kanban roundup includes two podcasts in addition to thoughtful articles on working with the Feds, variation and standups. Enjoy!
News
A thoughtful blog post titled, “Bringing Kanban to the Federal market space” looks at the challenges kanban practitioners face when working in the federal space and provides suggestions on how to make progress. I found the advice to, “save your political capital for a later day” insightful. http://blog.leankitkanban.com/2012/04/bringing-kanban-to-the-federal-market-space/#more-1315
Advanced Kanban Masterclass Hamburg Germany - May 30-Jun 1, 2012
This 3-day masterclass for advanced Kanban practitioners, consultants, coaches, change agents and managers with pioneer of Kanban, David J. Anderson is limited to just 12 people.
This workshop is for anyone tasked with leading a change initiative in their organization or at a client organization in 2012. It is suitable for managers, process engineers, change agents, experienced Agile, Lean, or project management coaches and consultants, existing Kanban practitioners with 1 year of experience, and those who have previously taken an accredited 2-day Kanban class and are actively using Kanban at work. Attendees are expected to be familiar with the content of the book, “Kanban - Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business.
Kanban takes a cultural approach to capability, performance and organizational performance. These intensive 3 day workshops are intended to transfer the knowledge and skills to enable you to lead Lean transformations using the Kanban Method. This is your opportunity to get your hard questions answered by the founder of the method and to develop deep ties in the community and network with fellow practitioners. All attendees will receive an automatic invitation to the Kanban Leadership Retreat, 2-day open space conference being held in Mayrhofen, Austria, 21-22 June.
Don’t miss out! Read what others are saying about this workshop.
A copy of the book will be supplied upon registration. Attendees will maximize the value if they are already familiar with the material.
The intent is to have an interactive collaborative session designed to facilitate knowledge sharing and learning. Attendees should come prepared to discuss their own experiences with Kanban and challenging situations they’ve faced with change initiatives at clients or employers
The workshop will open with a round table of introductions and shared Kanban experience. Each participant will be asked for a list of questions they’d like answered over the 3 day session and from this a topic backlog will be built. David will augment this backlog with essential topics and foundational material. The agenda for the remaining time will then be set to insure the fullest of coverage and the maximum value for all participants. The focus will be on shared experience and discussion of the hard questions that clients and team members ask coaches during the introduction of Lean ideas through the use of a kanban pull system. The workshop will include the use of the GetKanban game simulation and discussion of its value as a teaching aid.
The goal is to enable participants to go back into the field and successfully coach Agile/Lean transitions using the Kanban approach. Every workshop is different because of the unique experiences of each participant and their specific focus and desired outcomes. Each participant will received a personal recommendation from David J. Anderson as a result of participating in the class.
Kanban offers agile and project management coaches another tool in their transformation and coaching toolbox. Kanban is proving to be a facilitator of evolutionary change with low resistance and an enabler of accelerated high levels of organizational maturity.
How do Teams Continue to Win during Times of Turmoil and Uncertainty?
By Dominica DeGrandis
We had a big snow this week. Twelve inches total, a forty-three year record in our part of Puget Sound country. We lost power for ten hours – no furnace, no computer, no lights. No problem - I cozied up to an emergency kerosene stove and opened Jim Collins’ new book, Great by Choice, a study of winning behavior when confronted by uncertainty - with comparisons between companies that win and companies that languish. I was especially fascinated by the parallels I see between the behavior of Jim Collins’ winners and key concepts that we teach with Kanban for coping with uncertainty.
Collins begins with a story of two competing teams far removed from our 21st century business world. The location was Antarctica. The year was 1911. The competition was a race to the South Pole between a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen and an English team led by Robert Falcon Scott.
Each team’s leader was an experienced Antarctic explorer. Each team departed its home base at about the same time. Each faced a roundtrip of 1400 miles, all of it ice and snow. What was different?
The Norwegian team planted its flag at the South Pole on December 15, 1911 and returned safely to home base by January 25. The British team reached the Pole on January 17, 1912 - and never made it back, freezing to death near 79 degrees latitude.
The point of the story is that Collins attributes the difference between Amundsen’s success and Scott’s tragic failure to some fundamental concepts that apply to business management in the 21st century.
And I was almost startled when I realized that those same concepts apply to the Kanban method that we teach in our classes. These concepts are:
Amundsen lived and studied with Arctic Eskimos before going to the South Pole. Among the practices he observed was how the Eskimos never hurried, moving slowly and steadily, “avoiding excessive sweat that could turn to ice in Arctic temperatures.”
The Norwegian team, traveling on skis and using dogs to pull its sleds, set an attainable daily goal. And when they had reached that goal, the team stopped for the night. They set work-in-progress limits.
They managed risk by providing buffers. They provided three tons of supplies for five men. The British team, using ponies to pull its sleds, carried one ton of supplies for seventeen men. The Norwegians placed 20 pennants to mark supply depots. The British placed only one. Amundsen brought four thermometers to measure altitude. Scott brought only one – and it broke.
KANBAN PARALLELS
Studying is the essential first step to designing a Kanban system. Studying the “what and why” of an existing system’s performance leads to understanding improvements and understanding what prevents goals from being achieved.
Limiting work-in-progress (WIP) is a self-imposed constraint and a core practice of Kanban, where a limit is set on the number of tasks worked on at any one time. Collins uses the metaphor “20 Mile March” to describe an attainable and sufficient goal for a day’s work, identifying multiple benefits:
- It reduces the likelihood of catastrophe when you’re hit by turbulent disruption.
- It helps you exert self-control in an out-of-control environment.
Limiting WIP does not mean reducing WIP to near zero. The British had too little (food) inventory. The Norwegian’s had a lot more. Less inventory (traveling light), isn’t always better. This is especially true in knowledge work. The more important factor is controlling the WIP with a limit. Maintaining a healthy level of WIP creates options that mitigate specializations in the workforce and balance against uncertainty in the market or business domain.
Buffers improve predictability. Because the initial analysis of software development is never perfect, there are always unforeseen events. Service-level-agreements (SLAs) based on observed behavior buffer time expectations while WIP buffers in front of capacity constrained resources smooth flow and improve predictability.
The use of Kanban can be seen as an active part of risk management for IT organizations and product or service development groups. Organizations that know how to manage risk will have an edge in a volatile world. The more turbulent the world, the more you need to study your situation, keep an even pace (set WIP limits) and use buffers to meet expectations and improve predictability.
Kanban Leadership Workshop Barcelona, Spain - Mar 19-21, 2012
This 3-day leadership/coaching workshop with David is limited to just 12 people.
This workshop is for anyone tasked with leading a change initiative in their organization or at a client organization in 2012. It is suitable for managers, process engineers, change agents, experienced Agile, Lean, or project management coaches and consultants, existing Kanban practitioners with 1 year of experience, and those who have previously taken David J. Anderson’s Kanban class and are actively using Kanban at work. Attendees are expected to be familiar with the content of the book, “Kanban - Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business.
These intensive 3 day workshops are intended to transfer the knowledge and skills to enable you to lead Lean transformations using the Kanban Method
Don’t miss out! Read what others are saying about this workshop.
A copy of the book will be supplied upon registration. Attendees will maximize the value if they are already familiar with the material.
The intent is to have an interactive collaborative session designed to facilitate knowledge sharing and learning. Attendees should come prepared to discuss their own experiences with Kanban and challenging situations they’ve faced with change initiatives at clients or employers
The workshop will open with a round table of introductions and shared Kanban experience. Each participant will be asked for a list of questions they’d like answered over the 3 day session and from this a topic backlog will be built. David will augment this backlog with essential topics and foundational material. The agenda for the remaining time will then be set to insure the fullest of coverage and the maximum value for all participants. The focus will be on shared experience and discussion of the hard questions that clients and team members ask coaches during the introduction of Lean ideas through the use of a kanban pull system. The workshop will include the use of the GetKanban game simulation and discussion of its value as a teaching aid.
The goal is to enable participants to go back into the field and successfully coach Agile/Lean transitions using the Kanban approach. Every workshop is different because of the unique experiences of each participant and their specific focus and desired outcomes. Each participant will received a personal recommendation from David J. Anderson as a result of participating in the class.
Kanban offers agile and project management coaches another tool in their transformation and coaching toolbox. Kanban is proving to be a facilitator of evolutionary change with low resistance and an enabler of accelerated high levels of organizational maturity.
